Empowering the people

A friend recently recommended Sean Carroll’s Mindscape Podcast to me. Carroll doesn’t capture my imagination with all of his episodes; however, his conversation with Canadian/American author, filmmaker and educator Astra Taylor sure did.

The episode is titled “The Promise and Challenge of Democracy” so it was right in my wheelhouse.

I’ve yet to have the opportunity to dig into either Taylor’s book “Democracy May Not Exist, But We’ll Miss It When It’s Gone” or her documentary “What is Democracy?” They have been added to my growing to read/watch list!

The conversation between Carroll and Taylor is intriguing because it’s not just cheerleading our status quo democracy. They question how much power is actually in the hands of the people. It’s a question that I often tussle with here on the pages of this blog. I openly critique how I believe too much power has been consolidated into the highest provincial and national offices.

While the challenges in the democratic process of our American neighbours are more pronounced than they are here in Canada, many of the concerns raised by Taylor are not entirely foreign to Canadians. In fact, we have some of our own unique problems here that we need to address if the power is truly going to ever be in the hands of the people.

The discussion in this podcast episode draws analogies between our physical and political bodies and the environments we live and survive in.

To connect this back to much of what I have been churning over in the most recent series of blog posts, just as we have to be present and active in improving our personal bodies and minds, the same goes for our political bodies.

It requires work. Our work!

“Project Democracy,” if I may call it that, is not done yet; it needs care and there is a lot to be improved. Yet, there seems to some sentiment that it will just fix itself, or we’ve taken it for granted so the people who should have the power have accepted a subordinate role and have become apathetic to the effort required to change it. Somehow we are accepting the notion that we don’t like change.

We need more critical conversations like this one between Carroll and Taylor in this episode. It’s important that we are confident in our unpacking of the status quo, asking tough questions and ensuring that the power actually rests with the people and not just what we tell ourselves is the reality to provide ourselves with moments of comfort.

Taylor shares two important ideas as the discussion draws to a close. First, we should be striving to be good ancestors. Second, let’s not aspire to be founding fathers but perennial midwives.

As discouraging as politics and governance can be, it’s this last idea that keeps me focussed. Success is the result of constant effort, persistent and dedicated work to improve ourselves and our communities, big and small.

I definitely recommend giving this podcast a listen!